Fred Baye stands inside one of the bedrooms covered in blue tarp which is covering a hole in the roof of his burned-out home in East Greenbush. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Fred Baye stands inside one of the bedrooms covered in blue tarp which is covering a hole in the roof of his burned-out home in East Greenbush. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Fred Baye stands inside his burned-out home in East Greenbush, which caught on fire the day after Christmas. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Fred Baye stands inside his burned-out home in East Greenbush, which caught on fire the day after Christmas. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Fred Baye puts down a copy of the Bible inside his burned-out home. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Fred Baye puts down a copy of the Bible inside his burned-out home. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Fred Baye smiles at Times Union reporter Paul Grondahl as Baye finds a copy of Grondahl's book "Mayor Corning" in pretty good shape inside his burned-out home in East Greenbush. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Fred Baye smiles at Times Union reporter Paul Grondahl as Baye finds a copy of Grondahl's book "Mayor Corning" in pretty good shape inside his burned-out home in East Greenbush. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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One of Fred Baye's many books in charred rubble outside his burned-out home in East Greenbush. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

One of Fred Baye's many books in charred rubble outside his burned-out home in East Greenbush. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Fred Baye stands inside his burned-out home in East Greenbush. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Fred Baye stands inside his burned-out home in East Greenbush. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union)

Photo: Lori Van Buren

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Fred Baye's four dogs, left to right, Ziggy, Zoe, Rudy and Cocoa, all died in a fire at his East Greenbush home. (Photo courtesy of Fred Baye)

Fred Baye's four dogs, left to right, Ziggy, Zoe, Rudy and Cocoa, all died in a fire at his East Greenbush home. (Photo courtesy of Fred Baye)

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Firefighters work to put out a fire at Fred Baye's house on Route 150 in East Greenbush on Dec. 26. (Photo courtesy of Fred Baye)

Firefighters work to put out a fire at Fred Baye's house on Route 150 in East Greenbush on Dec. 26. (Photo courtesy of Fred Baye)

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Firefighters work to put out a fire at Fred Baye's house on Route 150 in East Greenbush on Dec. 26. (Photo courtesy of Fred Baye)

Firefighters work to put out a fire at Fred Baye's house on Route 150 in East Greenbush on Dec. 26. (Photo courtesy of Fred Baye)

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In downward spiral, test of faith

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EAST SCHODACK -- Fred Baye is a man of faith, a born-again Christian who experienced a profound conversion moment two decades ago.

But as he thumbed through scorched and waterlogged history books with soot-covered fingers this week, examining the burned wreckage of his house destroyed by a fire the day after Christmas, he conceded that his faith has been tested as never before.

"I'm desperate, totally broke and as down and out as I've ever been," Baye said. "I'm just praying that God opens another chapter in my life so that I'll be able to regain some self-esteem and sense of purpose."

He has been staying at a local budget motel and is driving a high-mileage mini-van borrowed from his son after his aging Ford Escort broke down. His unemployment checks long ago ran out and he has no source of income or health care.

Baye spent a night recently in the cold, dark basement, sifting through a pile of debris that had fallen into a scorched heap after the floor of his bedroom collapsed during the fire. He held a flashlight in one hand and raked through a burned and melted pile trying to salvage a watch, a collection of fountain pens and other valuables.

Baye's mind was drawn back to the long, draining months he spent trying to console first responders near the smoldering pile of ground zero and at the Fresh Kills landfill, where workers sifted through debris for body parts. He later worked to ease the psychological suffering of residents of Long Beach, Miss., devastated by Hurricane Katrina.

"I think I helped a lot of people deal with their grief after catastrophes, but when it hits you personally it's totally different," he said. "I'm a mess."

Baye was delivering the Times Union when the fire broke out. He rushed back home after State Police reached him on his cellphone and watched firefighters battle the stubborn blaze for three hours. Nobody else was in the house, but his four dogs -- Ziggy, Zoe, Rudy and Cocoa -- died from smoke inhalation. "They meant everything to me," he said.

Baye had recently reduced his home insurance policy to save money on the premiums, and the fire coverage is limited. The modest, three-bedroom Cape Cod style house on Route 150 in this suburban Rensselaer County town was deemed a total loss and will need to be demolished. The fire started in the basement early on the morning of Dec. 26, perhaps from a fan that ran to dry out the damp space crammed to the rafters with books and mementos in plastic bins.

The fire exacerbated a long slide for Baye, 61, a father of two grown children. He gradually lost his moorings after his wife moved out several years ago. Although they are still married and see each other occasionally, they are estranged and he lived alone. He has had no luck in finding a steady job after being unemployed for the past three years. He delivered newspapers for awhile and worked a summer at the Saratoga Race Course. As job application rejections piled up, he slid into a depression and his proclivities for hoarding -- one of the reasons his wife moved out -- were starkly revealed after the fire.

"I'm not proud of people seeing this," he said, leading a reporter and photographer through the burned-out structure, each room stuffed floor-to-ceiling with books, CDs, DVDs, vinyl records, magazines, rock 'n' roll memorabilia and tons of printed material. He had been accumulating things in the house for 40 years.

"I can't throw stuff out," he admitted, a packrat obsession that began in the late 1960s, when he worked as an assistant manager of the Aerodrome nightclub in Schenectady. He partook of the decadent lifestyle alongside acts such as Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin and the Jeff Beck Group when they performed at the State Street venue. Baye seems to have saved every band poster, 45 single, LP and assorted swag from the rock acts.

The stuff he collected is a tangible reminder of a professional career spent largely on the road and in the transitory profession of an advance man. He worked as a media and public affairs director for evangelical organizations, including Billy Graham and Luis Palau. He managed a local Christian radio station and booked Christian bands. He previously worked as a campaign aide for U.S. Sen. Jacob Javits and Gov. Mario M. Cuomo. Baye twice ran unsuccessfully for Congress. When he was making good money, he became a member of the Fort Orange Club.

His fall has been precipitous, picking up velocity after he lost his job as general and sales manager of WPTR-FM and WDCD-AM radio station in Albany in 2007, followed by a stroke two years ago.

"People who haven't been unemployed can't understand how devastating it is," Baye said. "It's a self-esteem-killer. It's a very shameful thing. You don't want to admit how low you feel."

"It's been tough seeing Fred go through all this. The fire was enough to push anybody over the edge," said the Rev. Curt Morgan, pastor of East Ridge Community Church in West Sand Lake. Baye has been a member there since the nondenominational Christian church was formed 20 years ago and he's a former trustee. Now, church members are taking up donations and offering collective prayers to assist Baye after the fire.

"Fred has come to the place in his life that he needs a faith loan and we're extending that to him," Morgan said. "My prayer is that through the ashes of his current circumstances, God will put Fred in a far better place. As difficult as that seems, I believe God can do that for Fred."

Baye is pragmatic about the challenges as he tries to pull himself out of the hole in which he finds himself.

"I spent so much time trying to pump my gas into other people's tanks after catastrophes that I became empty myself," he said. "I worked with traumatized people so long, I think I became traumatized myself."

On top of everything, he joined his estranged wife and her family as they buried her 86-year-old father on Wednesday.

"It's got to get better because it can't get much worse," Baye said. "It's been very challenging, but I'm still a strong Christian who looks to the Lord for guidance."

One book that survived among thousands of volumes that were consumed by fire or ruined by smoke and water was a Holy Bible.

It was inscribed to Baye by Billy Graham.

It seemed a fitting place to start in one man's journey toward redemption.